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Avoid Duplicate Content by Using the Canonical Link Element
I wanted to share a great video by Matt Cutts that is posted on the GoogleWebmasterHelp YouTube channel.
The canonical link element is lack of a better word a new “meta tag” that will help you avoid duplicate content on your site.
This video addresses the solution to the problem of having so many different URLs on your own site for the same page. One example he used is that Google sees all of these as different pages:
www.example.com
example.com
www.example.com/
example.com/
www.example.com/index.html
example.com/index.html
www.example.com/home.asp
example.com/home.asp
It’s almost certain that these pages all have the exact same content. As you can imagine if these are “viewed” by Google as different pages they will produce duplicate content on your site.
This is especially confusing when your backlinks point to a combination of these 8 different URLs instead of just one of them. The best way to head this off is to fix these problems before they arise. Matt says we need to “standardize” or “normalize” our URLs from the start so that there’s only one way to get to your content. One way to do this is by getting into the habit of choosing one URL and using it for all of your backlinks and for all of your internal linking (you should also always choose absolute URLs instead of relative URLs).
You will also want to go into your Google Webmaster Tools and set this chosen URL your preferred domain or preferred URL.
Google also considers the URLs submitted in the sitemap you submit. If they see one URL submitted that’s on the sitemap and one that’s not they will “prefer” the URL on the sitemap.
You can use a permanent 301 redirect for each of the other versions of the URL to the preferred URL. But there are instances where you don’t have access to do so (i.e. free hosting or anywhere you don’t run the web server, and of course you can’t help how other people link to you).
This video addresses some other issues that you’ll want to be aware of and it also give you the code you’ll want to use to for your canonical link elements and tells you where to place the code.
So check it out and leave your comments below. Have you ever heard of the canonical link element? Do you think you might have some duplicate content issues? Let us hear from you in the comments section. *SmiLes* Suzanne
P.S. A special note in the video for WordPress bloggers … he mentioned there will most likely be some new plugins to address this or possibly even have it written in to the next WP update version.
VIDEO – Avoid Duplicate Content by Using the Canonical Link Element (If you’re reading this via RSS Feed come on over and view this great video)
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Hi … My name is Suzanne Franco (Land) and I’m a wife (newlywed actually) and mother to 5 amazing kids (my 3 and his 2 – ages 9 to 16) and we live in the Texas Hill Country where we try to spend a lot of time in the water (river, boating, wakeboarding, the beach, etc.) and running from one kid’s sporting event to the other (mainly football, cheerleading, and soccer).
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Suzanne I don’t know how to appreciate you, this is really awesome post
Thanks a lot for sharing with us and i really understood the importance of subscribing to feed.
-Sri
I will DEFINITELY check this out! Ahhh the power of Wordpress and those wonderful plugins!
Thanks for the info!
Perhaps those of us with limited understanding of this should just wait for the plugins lol.
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Thanks Suzanne, this was new to me. As far as back links I learned a while back to use http://example.com/ when I had http://www.example.com/index.html. I built up a 5/10 PR then went to blog format. All those links needed to go to index.php. I did a 301 redirect but the page rank just never carried over. Probably because all the content changed too. Now I just use the main URLs in case the extensions have to change.
BTW, as a side note I just went to example.com to see what lucky dog had their hands on a great domain like that and it says, “not available for registration”.
Brian D. Hawkins’s last blog post..Ten Steps To A Responsive Email List
That is a great pointer, well worth looking into. Thanks for the info
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Have you read this?
Google Ends the Duplicate Content Penalty Myth
Make Money Online Talk’s last blog post..Make Money Online While You Sleep!
This is an old information we all know that
I will check it right now, I would not wish that my website had the same problem.
Another tool that I find really useful for my blogging. Thanks for sharing this. I consider content as a very significant part of every blog, and it’s important that it’s not a dupicate content.
This is a very useful post, thanks! I’ve had so many annoying problems with my wordpress blog, its frustrating. I wanted to 301 the homepage to a specific post, but its now got the same meta details in Google. This system will hopefully resolve that and help me to make some decent money from Google.
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Thanks for your helpful tip on duplicate content. Many of us are at different levels and appreciate your hard work giving us tips.
Tony
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Try this plugin: Canonical URL Wordpress Plugin.
Really wonderful piece of information and I appreciate it that you share something so useful with the readers of this blog.
I had no idea this worked that way. Why hasn’t google done something about that? I mean it’s obvious that if example.com and http://www.example.com have almost the same address and the exact same content they’re just one site. Google works on so many pointless things but can’t solve simple problems like that? I don’t understand it.
This is a really helpful post!!!!! Thank you.
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thanks for this post, you have just given me new ideas to prevent my site from duplicate. this is really helpful. i could try it all over again. thanks. (www.kika.ca)
I’m glad this was a helpful post … has it changed anything for any of you? Are you doing anything differently because of it? Let us know
yeah. it will be better if we use own words. I agree with you. Thanks for usefull information
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I didn’t realise that google algorithms were so retarded. I’ll have to try that method – I’d rather prefer to avoid any unjustified google penalties.
Well written and informative post. I have been using the trailng slash / without regard to the consequences, and this information caused me get my act together. Thanks for providing useful information!
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A++ post
I find really useful for my blogging. Thanks for sharing this. I consider content as a very significant part of every blog, and it’s important that it’s not a duplicate content. Really wonderful piece of information and I appreciate it that you share something so useful with the readers of this blog.
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Hey there! Oh this thing is a life saver!!! I went to check out the all in one wordpress plugin and it provides an easy way to do this. I just got it and love how simple it was to get some of the more tedious SEO stuff out of the way too!!!
Thanks for the post!
Tony Tovar
Seo Writer Specialist
[rq=83253,0,blog][/rq]SEO Writer, at your service!
Thank you for the informative post and comments.This service is excellent indeed.
most of my visitors are from google 90%+. Because google allows to select on the google webmasters tool account if google wants refer all links (www and non www) as one either of your choice, im not so worried about it, by doing 301 redirection or something. plus i am unable to decide whether my site should be www or non www
Hi Suzanne, I’m not familiar with canonical link element but I know about duplicate contents and that Google would notice it. Maybe we have to take up more on this plugin. Or is it a plugin?
Really good information, thanks for sharing, service is excellent.